The Journey: Aleyce Simmonds

"If you asked me when I was 12 what I thought my life would be like at 25, I would never have guessed ... the main thing I have learnt from this experience is that if you believe you can achieve anything"

Aleyce Simmonds grew up in a family where it was important everyone said grace and ate dinner together with the TV turned off.

It was also always very important to have music on in the background.

She said they listened to a lot of country music from the US, and even though she is classically trained and considered a career in Opera, when she sat down to write, it was country music that translated on the page.

Entering the Road to Tamworth competition, Aleyce remembers the rush of standing on the stage with the other finalists including Mollie McClymont and Morgan Evans.

"When they read out my name, I really was flabbergasted, I didn't know what to say, I cuddled the nearest man to me and that was Jim Haynes and to this day he says he feels extremely lucky that he got my first cuddle as a Road to Tamworth winner."

Her prize was a trip to Nashville and time in a studio. "Mighty, Mighty Love" was the result.

This turned out to be amazingly successful for Aleyce and was the most requested film clip in the CMC's history for a debut clip and the youngest artist to go to number 1 (until Taylor Swift came along - pretty good company to be in).

Returning home, Aleyce has spent a lot of time on the road touring, singing and finding out more about herself.

Her first album 'Pieces of Me', is just as the title suggests, parts of herself through song and story.

One of the important songs on the album is one she recorded, with one of her country music idols, Graeame Connors.

"Bondwood Boat" was a collaboration with Graeme, the idea came from a little boat she would see moored on a pier between Sydney and the Central Coast.

"I used to see the little boat and just wonder why it had been left there, and I was putting song writing ideas in a book ... it came from a lot of notes boat, memories and I took the ideas to Graeme and he loved it."

"I also got to sing the song at the Golden Guitars with Graeme this year and it was a dream come true."